1. Location is fantastic. Within walking distance to the shopping street and the forbidden city. The subway station is just below the shopping mall next door. If you want shopping, food and site-see, this location is the most convenient!
2. The front desk and the concierge are the 2 services that we troubled regularly during our stay of 6 nights. All Chinese site-seeing locations must be pre-booked and the applications are only Chinese-nationals friendly. Without a Chinese ID or a Chinese mobile number, it was impossible to help yourselves, even though we had Wechat and Alipay pre-installed and tested before we left Singapore.
3. Front desk team, Leon was the one who checked us in. He struggled to find us rooms on the same floor due to the peak season (23-29 Dec). We were given rooms on separate floor but he gave us lift access to both floors and apologized profusely for the wait and gave us vouchers for drinks at the cafe, which we did not use.
4. Concierge team led by Elvis with Alan and Wendy helping, was a fantastic team. Elvis had to use his mobile to help us book Great-Wall tickets, which we paid him through WeChat. During which, someone wanted his help, but he politely tell the guy to wait since he has started helping us first. Polite and put his point across without creating a scene.
5. Alan from the concierge team was the one that got us a table at their Christmas eve dinner. They first offered us a 4-seater table squeezing in 6, to be shared with another 2. We turned down the offer and was prepared to end up eating street food or order room service. But on the day itself, he saw us coming back and offered us another table, because they decided to add in more tables, which we took. It was a fantastic buffet dinner with free flow of alcohol and drinks. The highlight was the cutting of a huge blue-fin tuna. The price for the dinner per pax (don't remember how much now) was a fraction of what have to pay in Singapore. The amount of alcohol and tuna sashimi that we had was enough to recoup the dinner price !
6. Another observation (now that we have been to Harbin Shangrila after Beijing, we have a comparison) : at the breakfast restaurant, the reception could recognize us on the 2nd day, and remembered our room numbers and that we are family of 4! The training of service staff paying such attention to details can only mean that they believe in service to the core.
7. If you are going to Beijing, consider no where else but Hilton at Wangfujing. I know I will be there again !